Week #4 Blog for Exploring the Physical World

HOT OR NOT?

This week we had to design an experiment using different household materials that would act as insulators for mugs of hot water. I chose to use aluminum foil, Press n' Seal wrap, a cotton pot holder, and a napkin. The results were quite interesting.  I predicted that the aluminum foil would hold the most heat and act as the best insulator and that proved to be correct. What was suprising for me, was that the Press n' Seal wrap and the Napkin acted the same in terms of being insulators. Both had the same ending temperature at the end of thirty minutes.
Which brings me to the question:

What, specifically, would you like students to learn from this experiment? Did you achieve this goal when you engaged in the experiment?

I would like my students to learn more about insulators and the specific materials they are using in the experiment. I gained a great deal of insight about heat transfer and insulators through conducting this experiment. In terms of insulators, I learned the proverbial rule “don’t judge a book by its cover. I based my predictions on what I knew of the materials when cooking and not neccessarily because of what they are actually made of.  Thinking ahead to having my students conduct this experiment, I would encourage them to research the consistency of the materials they have selected before conducting the experiment this way they have more background knowledge about which material may make the best insulator based on makeup alone. I feel as though I could achieve this goal if I were to do the experiment again.

Week #2 BLOG for Exploring the Physical World

This week we were to select a specific question and design a guided inquiry activity based on that question. 
The question I chose was: How do different surfaces affect the momentum of marbles?

 Here is my experiment or guided inquiry design plan:

Using a paper towel tube, place a marble inside above the desired surface. Allow marble to coast down the tube onto the surface and observe what happens to the momentum of the marble once it comes in contact with the surface. Repeat twice on each surface to prevent error.

Materials Used:

Marbles (2) one large red, one smaller blue

Different Surfaces

1-wood dinning room table

2- textbook cover

3-sidewalk (concrete)

4-Grass

Paper Towel Tube

I feel overall the experiment played out well and based on my previous experience with inquiry-based instruction there is not a specific element I would change in this activity. The results were very interesting and it was a fun and easy activity that works for a variety of academic abilities. In fact, my 5yr and 2yr old sons helped me conduct this experiement. The marbles gained the most momentum and speed on the smoother surfaces: dinning room table and textbook cover. There was less momentum and more friction present with the rougher surfaces used: sidewalk (concrete) and grass.  The paper towel tube worked well to drop the marbles onto the desired surface. In the future to make it more engaging, I may have students pick from a variety of materials instead of just using marbles and the surfaces I selected.

I would like students to use this experiement to learn about force and motion and how it is present in everyday life. I think this would be a great introduction activity to teaching Newton's Laws of Motion.   This was fun and engaging for my 5 yr and 2yr old so hopefully it would be fun and engaging for my middle school students as well.